God has you covered. Just believe.

We all go through periods when it seems like heaven goes completely deaf, when everything in the world feels like it’s falling apart. You know those times when you feel devastated by circumstances or people. We turn to God in a panic and desperation because we can’t see any hope. But we don’t hear Him. It feels like He’s turned His back on us. What’s with that?

When life falls apart on you and panic sets in, you forget to trust God. You forget that He’s got your back. You start looking around for answers and ways to fix things yourself. Don’t get me wrong, you still have responsibility, but when you forget that God promises to be with you, you only look for answers you contrive.

Once we stop trusting, we essentially pull the plug on our communication line with God. He’s still talking to us, but we stop listening. It takes courage to keep believing God in the face of devastation. You have to choose to believe that God will take are of you. A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand but it shall not come near you. (Ps 91:7) No matter what happens, you have to believe that you can trust God.

Take a deep breath and find your peace. God is with you and He always will be.

Bloom where you’ve been planted.

It’s sad that very few people feel fulfilled in their work. Part of that is because not everyone is brave enough to dream big and trust God. There’s another group that is trusting God and still waiting to see breakthrough. I understand. It can feel an awful lot like Joseph working diligently in prison for all those years waiting to be released.

You know what got Joseph out of prison? His faithfulness while he was still in there. He didn’t give up when he was thrown in with criminals. He kept his integrity and honor. He was faithful in the small things and God blessed him for that.

No matter what you have to do for your job, or your position in life, don’t be discouraged as you wait for what you’ve asked God for. Be faithful. Bless those you work with. Go the extra mile. Be the one everyone talks about being so amazing. Pray everyday that God be with you with wisdom and understanding so you do your work with excellence.

You’ve been planted in that place for a reason. Blossom and grow where you been planted. When the time is right, God will transplant you somewhere new. Until then, be faithful and full of grace. As God shapes you, you are effecting everyone around you.

Another post on being faithful: Being Faithful In The Simple Things

Can you be faithful, no matter what?

It seems that God doesn’t mind making us a little crazy just to see if we will trust Him. He said to go dip in the river seven times, go back again and see if there’s a cloud yet, go show yourself to the priests. I think He knows what will push our buttons and make us balk at what He says to do. If it really doesn’t make sense to do, will we do it out of obedience anyway?

It’s called faith. Faith is believing outside of what we know, no matter how silly or strange. When we recognize the voice of God, we are responsible for obeying. We get hung up when we don’t understand what or why He asks what He does, so we may refuse to do it.

We have to get over looking foolish. We just don’t see the reasons why. If we did, we’d gladly do what ever it is we’re hesitant to do. So why do we have to know? It’s just human nature I guess, but we have to get over it.

If we can be obedient when God speaks, He can trust us to do great things in the kingdom. Faith will follow Him where our eyes will not.

By faith we believe in what we cannot see.

I read a cartoon recently that made a joke about an invisible magic man in the sky. There was a time when I would have taken offense at that. God is not a joke. But I had to stop and consider it. He is invisible. He does perform wonders we can’t. His throne is in the heavens. That’s all true. But that’s just it, it is true.

Jesus said, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. (Jhn 20:29) Faith is all about believing in what we can’t touch, smell, or see. It is believing in something invisible. If we could touch, smell, or see it, there wouldn’t be any faith involved. But blessed are those who believe.

God is pleased with our faith. But when you have the presence of God in you, faith is not hard. You hear Him in your heart. You see Him in action. You are blessed in ways only God could do for you.

I am not angry with joke writers who don’t understand God. If you have not met Him and received Him in your heart, you have no basis for understanding Him. But to those of us who do, He is life and love, forever.

Another post on faith: How to Grow in Faith

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Trust God and relax in the storm.

I love how Jesus slept in the boat in the middle of a storm–a storm so bad, the disciples thought they were going to die. I love that Jesus had so much peace, that He used the time to catch up on sleep. Now that’s real peace. Because He knew His Father, He knew they were in safe hands. Might as well take a nap.

That is a great place to live everyday. Pressure may come. Problems may come. But when you know your Father, and when you know you are in safe hands, you don’t have to fear. The disciples clearly didn’t understand how much God loved them. They were full of fear, not trust and thankfulness.

Wrap your head around the fact that God loves you so much that you can trust Him with your life–everything in your life. Yes, you will see the waves rise up before you, but you can have the peace to take a nap if you want. God has it in control, if you allow Him. If you see the waves and panic, then His grace won’t help you. The power of God to help comes from your heart to trust Him completely. The peace to sleep through a storm is a wonderful way to live.

Speak Peace To The Storm

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Fear not. Your Father has your hand.

Suppose you are a parent. Suppose you are taking your toddler to the beach for the first time. I remember this. My little son was so terrified of the small waves that came at him, that he literally climbed up my body. What he didn’t understand, was that I would never allow him to be harmed. I was with him, holding his hand, keeping him safe, whether he realized it or not. (He didn’t.)

If we could just see that God is with us in the same way, we’d never feel fear. He promises to be with us and take care of us as an awesome, loving Father. He has our hand. He’s with us. He won’t allow anything to harm us.

The harm comes when we forget that. We wander off and get ourselves into trouble, then panic because the waves are coming at us. All we have to do is turn our heart back to God and put our trust in Him.

God’s love for us is divine. It’s holy. Fear cannot stand before it. His love is like a magnet. It draws us to Him to keep us safe. Be as a little child and see how your Father has your hand. There’s nothing to fear when you are with Him.

Never Be Afraid

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All of the Bible is true.

Can you believe what you read in the Bible? You have to remember, “All scripture is given by inspiration for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” (2Tim 3:16) That means yes, you can believe what you read in the Bible, because the word of God is true.

Yes, goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. Yes, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are yours if you have the Holy Spirit. Yes, God loves you and will never leave you or forsake you.

If God said it in His word, He means it. He meant it when He first said it, and He still means it. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is true. There’s no way He can lie. So read the Bible with complete confidence that everything He says in there is yours. All those wonderful promises belong to you.

What you don’t want to do is pick and choose what you will believe and what you won’t. We are responsible for all the truth that God has given to us. What part of God’s word do you think He’s lying about? There is nothing.  God’s word is always true, so believe it.

You Don’t Get To Choose What Is Truth

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You don’t have to know God’s plan to trust Him.

I don’t know about you, but every so often, when I find myself knee-deep in projects that threaten to pull me under and I don’t have any flexibility in getting them done, I have to wonder, What in the world is God preparing me for?

I believe that God has a plan for each of us, but if we want to be successful in it, we have to let Him be in control. The problem is, when you hand the reigns over to Him, He takes off in directions you’re never quite ready for. Suddenly you’re learning new computer skills, managing a team for the first time, or going back to school.

Your experiences at work, at home, or at church, are all shaping you and preparing you for the next thing. Of course, the next thing won’t happen until you master what you’ve got, so it could take a while. But know that God does have a plan and, if you cooperate, He’ll take you places you never dreamed of.

Don’t complain about where you are right now. Give it to God and ask Him what He’s preparing you for. You are being shaped for a reason. Be excellent and watch to see what comes next.

Position Yourself For Promotion

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Good things come to those who wait.

How hard is it to wait on the Lord? Really hard. We can let our impatience get the better of us. The enemy will whisper that nothing is going to happen, so give it up. We see other people being blessed in the same area we are waiting in and feel frustrated. The wait seems intolerable. But don’t let it.

Pray for patience. Yes, I know what they say, but they are wrong. Patience is a gift of God and a weapon against the enemy. With patience, the time of waiting will be far easier. If you know impatience is a problem for you, repent and ask for patience. God has everything you need for your growth.

If the enemy is whispering that it’s never going to happen. Rebuke him. God would never say that. If your thoughts don’t agree with the word of God, then you need to change your thoughts. Repent for agreeing with them. Rebuke the lies and speak the truth over yourself. If you don’t have faith in what you pray for, you’ll never sees them answered. Once you give up, you let the enemy win.

What about when you see other people being blessed in the exact area you’ve been waiting for, and longer? You join them in thanksgiving. You bless them and thank God for answering their prayers. Be genuinely happy for them. If you can’t, then something’s wrong and you need to deal with it. Confess it to God. Give your disappointments to Him. He understands, but He doesn’t want you to carry around the wrong attitudes. Ask for more of His grace so you can bless others.

The time of waiting is God’s way of looking at how serious you are in His ability to answer. How badly do you want this? Bad enough to wait as long as it takes?

• Wait on the Lord, be of good courage and He shall strengthen your heart. Psalms 27:14
• Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way. Psalms 37:7
• For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Psalms 37:9
• And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. Psalms 39:7
• I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. Psalms 130:5
• And I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of Jacob and I will hope in Him. Isaiah 8:17
• But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. Isaiah 40:31
• The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25
• It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:26
• Therefore I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Micah 7:7
• Therefore wait on Me, says the Lord. Zephaniah 3:8

Yes, Lord. We will wait.

Another post on waiting on the Lord: Yes, God Answers Prayer

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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go cross-cultural

I do a lot of writing, for this blog and for my novel, but recently I did something a little different. I have a friend who writes a blog for his cross-cultural daughter, Mia Mei. Mia Mei’s dad is Caucasian and her mother is Chinese. The blog is about growing up in a cross-cultural home and parenting a cross-cultural child.

I was challenged to write a blog for this genre. No problem. I can do that. It took a bit to think through how I would write a God-themed post for a cross-cultural child, but then I got it. I wrote about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being taken from their homeland and forced to grow up and be educated in another country.

The greater challenge was the two hundred word limit while story-telling. I like story-telling, so it was hard to not make it longer than it was. But it did speak to me. When I consider what those young men faced and how they stood in their integrity and faith, I’m humbled. Would I have the where with all to do the same thing? I hope to never be faced with that test.

Anyway, if you’re interested in how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced the fiery furnace on Mia Mei’s blog, check it out. Tell her hi while you’re at it.

Another post on great faith: Oh You Of Great Faith!